This invention relates to collective objects management in general, and in particular to a storage container having electronically addressable storage compartments.
The term “collective objects management systems” is a term coined to denote systems for generally keeping track of items (“objects”) in a collection of items. For example, an automobile parts warehouse at any given time has a collection of vehicle parts (“objects”) in inventory. The kind and number of such parts varies every day, as parts are sold and new parts are received. In order to keep track of the number and kind of vehicle parts in inventory, some type of collective vehicle parts management system must be used. Similarly, in a semiconductor manufacturing operation, at any given time there is a collection of integrated circuits (“objects”) of one or more types located somewhere in the facility, which must be accounted for using a collective integrated circuits management system. Hardware stores and the hardware department of large home improvement stores typically have large collections of relatively small objects, such as fasteners (e.g., nuts, bolts, washers, sheet metal screws, and wood screws); grommets of various sizes; O-rings; electrical connectors; and small electronic components, such as diodes, resistors, and capacitors. Such object collections ideally need a collective objects management system to maintain a current inventory.
In all of the above examples, compartment storage containers have been used to house the objects. A typical compartment storage container has a number of partitions, either permanent or removable, to create a number of individual compartments in which the objects can be placed on a sorted basis. Such compartment storage containers have been fabricated from both metal and plastic, with some such containers using metal for both the container housing and the container partitions, others using plastic for both the container housing and the partitions, still others using a plastic container housing and metal partitions, and others using a metal container housing and plastic partitions. The plastic materials used in the past have been either opaque or translucent.
Compartment storage containers are found in homes, work shops, hardware stores, automotive parts stores and manufacturing facilities and have proven to be useful in a wide variety of applications requiring the organized storage of small items for ready access.
A principal difficulty encountered with the use of compartment storage containers lies in the manner of retrieving desired items from the collection of items stored in the several compartments in a given container. In particular, retrieving the correct item requires identifying the contents of individual compartments until the correct compartment containing the desired item is found. In some applications, visual inspection, either directly or through a transparent top cover, is the technique relied upon to identify the types of articles contained in that compartment. In other applications, small labels are adhered to the interior of each compartment, with each label containing a brief description of the type of object contained in that compartment. Both techniques are less than optimal. The visual inspection technique divulges only a minimum of subjective information about the contained objects. Similarly, the label technique is limited by the amount of space available on the label to describe the objects contained in that compartment. Depending on the nature of the contained objects, the label technique cannot adequately distinguish the articles in one compartment from the articles in other compartments. For example, if the objects contained in different compartments of a given container are resistors of different resistance values and power ratings, it is at best difficult to adequately distinguish among the several choices presented by all of the compartments in the same container. Similarly, if the objects contained in different compartments of a given container are threaded bolts of different pitch, thread fineness and length, it is likewise at best difficult to adequately distinguish among the several choices presented. The label technique also suffers from the disadvantage that the labels must be changed whenever the kinds of objects contained in a given compartment are changed. Both techniques are relatively inefficient in enabling quick identification of the correct compartment in applications having large collections of different types of objects. In general, the larger the number of containers and compartments, the slower the access time to the contents of the desired compartment.